Four Things I'm Loving Lately: LifeArt Glasses, Orgain, Flying Embers Hard Kombucha, and City Views

So much time has passed since my last time logging onto my little corner of the world-wide web. I have tons to share and little time to spare, so let’s just get right to it. Here are four things I’m absolutely loving lately!

Orgain

The only reason I hesitate to call my breakfast my favorite meal of the day is because, to me, saying I love a protein shake this much sounds… you know, stereotypical? Basic? Fitness-freak-ish? All of the above. Really, though! Over the last few months, I’ve gotten back into making post-workout protein shakes (or smoothies, whatever you want to call them) and I absolutely love them. I searched the web for the highest quality, best reviewed, and most cost-effective whey protein powder to add to my protein shakes and Orgain Clean Whey came out on top. The flavor is strong enough and just sweet enough that, if you’re into it, you can just shake a couple scoops with water or milk and have yourself a simple post-workout fuel source to sip on. OR, you can be like me and blend it up with frozen banana, spinach, avocado, and a spoonful of cacao (for extra chocolatey-ness) and have yourself a thick, creamy, milkshake-esque protein smoothie to enjoy.

Click the link below AND use the code “hungryhaley” to get 30% off your order. I’ll do the math for you - this code gets you a whole tub of Orgain Clean Whey Protein for around $20, which is the most competitive price around. Do it!

Flying Embers Hard Kombucha

I’m kind of a wine person (I like white wine). I’m barely a beer person (I like two specific beers). And I am rarely a liquor person (vodka ew tequila ew rum ew). But hard kombucha? THAT’S my kind of alcohol. My favorite brand is only sold in California, which made the move to Minnesota that much more difficult, but after months of tasting a couple local brands here in the land of 10,000 lakes (and like 2 bottles of kombucha), I’ve found one that I LOVE - Flying Embers Hard Kombucha. The black cherry is innnnncredible, definitely my favorite. It’s low in sugar, which I appreciate because I’m not into super sweet drinks (or hangovers). After two of these - okay sometimes three - I can wake up the next morning and not feel like I… got hit by a bus. You know?

It isn’t widely distributed throughout the state yet, but there is a store locator on the website that you can use to find it at a store near you. Lucky for me, a liquor store just down the street from my parents’ house in the suburbs sells it, so I make sure to grab a pack or two when I visit.

LifeArt Glasses (blue-light blockers)

After my first two weeks at the new job, I’d spent about 80% of my hours staring at a computer screen. Yikes! One of my coworkers rocked her blue-light blocking glasses each day and recommended I give them a try. I found these LifeArt glasses on Amazon for the most affordable price (for a girl who just spent way too much on brand new furniture for her brand new apartment), wore them everyday at work for a week straight, and noticed a significant improvement in headaches and eye fatigue throughout the day, and most importantly for me, SLEEP. For the first time in a long time, I slept all the way through each night without waking up and had no trouble at all falling asleep.

I bought two pairs - one to keep at home and one to keep in my work bag so that I don’t forget a pair when I head out the door - and I’ve been encouraging family and friends to try them out because they’re SO helpful!

City Views

The minute I stepped foot into this apartment unit and took a look at the view from the patio, I was sold. Living in a big city has always been something I’ve wanted to do for a period of time in my 20’s - call it what you want, but yes, I’m kind of a city girl. The tall buildings and bustling streets and bright lights send excitement pulsing through my veins. I’m so grateful I have the opportunity to live here, work here, and gaze out my windows at Downtown Minneapolis every morning, noon, and night!

PS if you’re looking to move to the area and might be interested in any of the units in this building, send me a DM on Instagram or an email and I will happily share more details with you! I’ve had such a great experience here so far and would love for anyone interested to have this opportunity, too.

The first and second photos are from my patio. The third photo was taken at the Stone Arch Bridge - one of my favorite spots for a summer-night stroll.

Thanks for reading about my favorite things lately! I hope you’ve taken something from this - be it a pair of LifeArt glasses or a tub of Orgain protein. Some of these links are affiliate links and I will earn a small percentage of any purchases made through them, which helps support this blog, so thank you again!

See you again soon for more favorites 🤗

Giulia: She's My Favorite

Would it surprise you if I told you that my favorite restaurant in the Twin Cities only made it onto my list after I’d visited for the first time? Coming up on its one-year anniversary, Giulia in downtown Minneapolis has gotten plenty of well-deserved attention since its opening. Somehow, I just hadn’t heard of it until about a month after I’d already landed here. It took nothing more than a few steps inside - gazing at the tall marble ceilings, mesmerized by the glowing bar - for me to (mentally) add it to The List and make it a point to come back as many times as possible, as soon as possible. I hadn’t even taken a bite of anything yet!

My heels clicked on the white marble tiles as the hostess led us to our table, and I was thankful I chose to dress up (by my definition, at least). Without feeling at all bougie and intimidating, Giulia welcomes its guests into a bright, spacious, and gorgeous dining room. Yeah, it’s a little fancy. Dress up. Embrace it! As any foodie would, I glanced at the tables while walking to ours to sneak a peek at what co-head chefs Steven Brown and Josh Hedquist offer. With a delighted appetite, I knew from the plates of sophisticated pasta swirls and simple pizzas with smoky charred crusts that this place could be it. Giulia could very well be The One - my favorite restaurant. And after just the first visit, without a doubt in my mind, Giulia became just that - The One, my favorite restaurant (it’s that good) - so I accepted without hesitation an invitation for a second visit in exchange for a share here on the blog. 

Drawing from my first visit, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to order this time. For assistance, and for some family fun because we’re never too old for that, I brought along Mom and Dad. If anyone was going to appreciate this place, this food, this experience half as much as me, they would. Two extra stomachs and two extra sets of taste buds can’t hurt, right? 

It isn’t just the decor that provides that experience. It’s the service team and the cooks (which you can see hard at work in the open kitchen). The servers know the menu - like, they really know the menu - and they’re the best people to turn to for help in selecting a dish. Ours recommended the mozzarella speziato to start. It’s more than just a plate of mozzarella. It’s an entire show, a lesson from one of the cooks on how to make fresh mozzarella, and he’ll wheel a cart over beside your table equipped with a large steel bowl, jug of boiling hot salted water, various accompaniments, and the mozzarella-maker with 3 pairs of sturdy kitchen-grade gloves on. Pay attention - he’s teaching you how to make fresh mozzarella! If you can multitask, snap a picture as he performs the mozzarella pull. It’s mesmerizing and mouth-watering. Within seconds, he’s drizzling balsamic and olive oil over the mozzarella ball, and suddenly, you’re staring at a piece of mozzarella-artwork in the center of your table. Dig right in to the creamiest mozzarella you’ll experience outside of Italy. It doesn’t need a pizza crust and marinara sauce - it’s meant to be served solo, and you’ll understand why when you take that first bite. Fans of a little spicy kick will enjoy the speziato - pickled calabrian chiles, and those who love anything with a salty olive tapenade should get the nero. Next time, I’m ordering the speck and rucola. 

We had no plan of attack for the incoming four dishes, so when our server asked what we’d like brought out first, I just knew I wanted to savor the Black Apple pizza last. Something about starting with the Trout Saltimbocca and Duck made sense to me, so those arrived next, followed by the creamy Carbonara, and lastly, the beloved pizza. 

It was by far the meatiest duck breast I’ve eaten - tough with a subtle tenderness. A velvety butternut squash polenta lies beneath the duck, thankfully, and balances the tougher texture and gamey flavor. The whole dish is garnished with those little leaves that fall off the brussels sprouts and bake to a smoky, chip-like char, and an elegant sprinkle of parm. 

I would have overlooked the Trout Saltimbocca completely, had it not been for my dad, who kindly and sweetly insisted we try it. Next to the duck, which could easily have been mistaken for skirt steak, the trout is unmistakably trout - the whole fish wrapped in speck, broiled in the Woodstone gas-fired ceramic oven for the same amount of time it took me to eagerly accept this dinner invite. I won’t lie - the head gave me a bit of the heebie-jeebies at first, but those left the second I took a bite of the buttery flesh dipped in the zippy, creamy lemon sauce. If you must, just close your eyes and take a bite. You have to just give it a try. 

Whatever you do, do NOT close your eyes when the carbonara comes out. Give this dish your undivided attention. I finished every swirled forkful of house-made spaghetti (Chef Steven Brown’s own recipe, kept secret) enrobed in the classic creamy carbonara sauce with “Ohmyword, how have I never tried this before?”. Seriously. Dad, the carbonara connoisseur, knew there was something different about this one in particular. A subtle tanginess in the sauce, perhaps from an extra squeeze of lemon, sets Giulia’s carbonara apart from others. Whatever it was in this recipe, it had me in an instant. Only a few noodles lay in a couple puddles of remaining sauce, and I had to fight with all my lady-like manners the urge to pick the plate up and lick it clean. As if he could read my mind, a server politely came and swept up the almost-clean plate to make room for the pizza…

… the pizza! My favorite part (sorry, carbonara - I’m too loyal). For two main reasons, it’s fitting to save the pizza for last: 1) you know, “save the best for last” is kind a rule, and 2) the hints of sweetness from each ingredient give it an air of indulgence, almost like it’s a dessert. Chef Brown uses a high-quality Italian Caputo 00 flour to make the thin dough with a crisp chew and a distinct flavor only possible with a long fermentation process. It’s a one-of-a-kind crust, one you’ll want to eat every last bite of. The black apple, which raised eyebrows at our table, is similar to a fig, lightly marinated in vinegar to soften the texture and brighten the flavor. Casalingo salami, sweet sausage, and the bold gorgonzola cheese give this pie its umph - the reason it’s my favorite pie, in and beyond the Twin Cities. Don’t hate me for calling it sexy. It’s a sexy pizza.

Some restaurants are known for their food, others for their service. Giulia provides for its guests an experience rooted in undeniably good food, and extended into an alluring trio of genuine service and hospitality, and an irresistibly seductive atmosphere. I’ll be back soon, and I hope to see you there, too!

I Like Big Buns: Isles Bun and Coffee

I like lists, so I made a few to keep me sane and organized while I packed to move from California to Minnesota - clothes, kitchen things, books, and the like. My favorite and fastest growing list is still the one I couldn’t fit on a piece of paper and needed to write up on a Google Doc - the list of restaurants, bars, cafes, and coffee shops to visit in the Twin Cities and surrounding areas. At the top of that fourth section, for reasons to be detailed ahead, stands Isles Bun and Coffee. 

From some in-depth social media research (read: Instagram- and Facebook-stalking), I gathered a few observations. The first is that this is a spot well-known for both its coffee and its baked goods, namely, the giant cinnamon buns blanketed in cream cheese frosting. The staff is thoughtful enough to set an additional tub of frosting out near the utensils and coffee add-ins for those of us who adore cream cheese frosting, ya’ know, just in case we need another slather or two. Good people. My people. And the second is that this is a neighborhood kind of coffee shop, one that welcomes dogs inside (see, good people!) and knows the guests by name, greeting everyone with a smile as warm and sweet as the homemade buns I can’t stop talking about. It’s the kind of place with rustic colorful chalkboard menus and t-shirts you can’t resist buying because you love the place the minute you walk in and inhale the sweet scent of cinnamon buns and espresso.  

This little coffee shop - a neighborhood favorite - sits humbly at the corner off a bustling street in Uptown Minneapolis, between the lively bars and restaurants and the quiet, quaint Lake of the Isles. Merely the size of three glass windows, Isles Buns appears tiny from the outside looking in, but they’ve squeezed a surprising number of tables inside. It’s cozy, warm, and sweet, just like the buns. The 80’s music bumps a little louder than one might expect or prefer in a coffee shop, but somehow it works here. I let that slide because the coffee and cinnamon buns are so damn tasty. 

Its in the name - Isles [Cinnamon] Buns and Coffee. They’ve simplified the decision-making process. How sweet of them! Cappuccino, mocha, chai, drip coffee - I’ve tried them all, and they’re all are delicious and without question prepared carefully and intentionally. You won’t make a bad decision. Just pick something. The cinnamon bun is waiting! While you’re at the register, peek down and to the left for a glimpse at the most pillowy and tastefully sweet, buttery, and cinnamon-spiked bun around town. That mesmerizing swirl of love is the reason you’re here, and according to the bakers, these buns are as “sweet as Grandma”. You should also know about the array of other fresh-baked goodies offered: scones - traditional and vegan, puppy dog tails, cookies, brownies, and carrot cake. Everything is made right behind the barista, in plain sight and without any structure blocking the flow of the heart-warming, mouth-watering scent of said goodies to float through the shop while you’re sipping coffee in good company, whether you brought a friend to share the bun with you or not. 

I would recommend inviting a friend because not only in this bun far too large for a single stomach, it’s far too good to be eaten alone. You won’t be able to shut up about it and that looks a lot less weird when you’re talking to a friend instead of the wall. It’s an uncontrollable reaction as a result of consuming perfect cinnamon buns. It’s physically impossible to eat one of these without smiling, and it’s difficult to focus on writing this piece with one staring right at me. Trust me. 

If you order a fresh bun, you’ll pay $4. For a day-old bun, which are wrapped up and nestled in a basket near that tub of velvety cream cheese frosting I wish I could order on its own, you’ll pay just $1. Go for the fresh bun if you’ve got a friend with you because you can and should devour the entire bun, and then after doing the math, you’re really only paying $2. If you’re solo, however, I’d suggest the day-old bun because you will find it difficult to finish an entire thing on your own. Unwrap the day-old, slather on a little frosting, and dig straight into the center. You’ll be satisfied, not stuffed. You’ll smile at no one in particular, just beaming with overwhelming joy because you get to cherish that buttery bun spiked and swirled with cinnamon all for yourself. It’s great, I promise. 

Every coffee shop has something unique to offer, and I’ll discover what that is at each of the coffee shops on my list. Isles Bun and Coffee is a small coffee shop with a big personality and big buns. Which I like. And I cannot lie.